Chapter 161: The Spirit of the Eye, All as Nourishment

Incredible, she could feel everything in the divine realm simultaneously; every creature and every blade of grass on the Sky Island was within Miss Vilyric’s thoughts.

The world seemed to become her hand; if she wanted, she could instantly kill any target, down to the individual, or even resurrect any lingering deceased.

She could easily reverse rivers and mountains, make the floating islands turn upside down, and change the direction of gravity below—within the bounds of the divine realm, it seemed there was nothing she couldn’t do.

She could clearly “see” Edwina, who was counterattacking the Grey Robes suppressed by the “Eternal Shield of Light” alongside the United Kingdom’s guard forces, see Philena commanding disaster relief and coordination, and see Tilysha busily tending to the injured. She also saw the Wing Emperor Aistini and High Priest Tira, who had left the Temple of Sky and started directing the overall situation.

She could also see Lucas and Half-Dragon Losa, who had rushed out of the temple but were still fiercely engaged in aerial combat. If she wished, she could instantly grant victory to either side.

Incredible, is this what it feels like to be a god?

At that moment, the divine realm of Life and Decay finally shattered amidst the conflict, the last plant turned to ash under the light, and the Earth Mother Goddess Xi Fu fell from the void, tumbling clumsily in the air before stabilizing.

She appeared to have no visible injuries, but compared to before, after fighting with Little Dragon Daughter, Vilyric could notice that Xi Fu’s aura had significantly deteriorated.

This wasn’t mere physical harm on the surface; if it had to be described, her divine soul, which carried the divine spark’s essence, had sustained unavoidable injuries during the clash in the divine realm.

For a god, this was the true heavy injury that was not easily recoverable. If we were to use terminology from “Phantom World,” it would be akin to depleting SP and possibly even reducing the maximum limit.

The divine realm war was that brutal, and Xi Fu was merely forcing the manifestation of an incomplete divine spark, so the backlash would be even more severe.

“…”

Had she been in the initial position of the battle, Vilyric might have mocked her a bit, but now, holding absolute victory, looking at the dejected and complex-faced Goddess, she found herself lacking the desire for a long speech.

Or perhaps, it was just the omnipotence bestowed by the divine realm’s manifestation that caused the Priestess to undergo a slight change of heart at this moment.

“You lost.”

She simply stated it, as if declaring an indisputable fact.

Xi Fu opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to pour out a thousand words, but in the end, she reluctantly retrieved the artifact in her hand, slowly nodding.

“Yes, I lost. Truly worthy of being the agent of the world’s will; you are stronger than that dragon. Even at my peak, the outcome wouldn’t change; the world’s malice… ha, so hateful yet so powerless to a god.”

“I’ve already said, I have nothing to do with the world. It is your own self-inflicted disaster; if you hadn’t unleashed God-Made Beasts and slaughtered lives, and then attacked the Sky City, I wouldn’t bother with you.”

Miss Vilyric frowned slightly; she could feel that this guy… didn’t even attempt to understand what others were saying?

“Even God-Made Beasts know about this; it seems you know quite a bit… ha… if this wasn’t due to an agreement with the world and you stumbled into it blindly, that only proves your foolishness even more. Laughable bunch…”

“Dare to insult my master again, and I’ll rip your mouth apart.”

Vilyric didn’t really mind the cold sarcasm, but the hot-tempered Little Dragon Daughter couldn’t stand it. She eyed Xi Fu with an obviously unfriendly gaze, as if ready to charge in again to finish the previous beating.

The Withering Goddess, however, also showed no fear; she appeared to have given up on herself, arms wide open, exposing her midsection, a weak but disdainful smile creeping at the corners of her lips.

“Come on, come kill me. No matter how you argue or convince yourself, the death of the Earth Mother Goddess today is the best proof of the world’s malice manifesting. I knew this day would come; it’s just too bad the hounds came too swiftly, and I couldn’t fulfill my expected vision.”

“You’re seeking death!”

“Ah, wait a moment.”

Xiao Guang didn’t mess around—she would really jump in. If Vilyric hadn’t held her back, Xi Fu might have actually been killed in her current state.

She couldn’t die yet; there was so much information that Vilyric needed to gather from this suddenly awakened goddess, and it seemed Xi Fu Lin needed it too.

“Looks like you’re hellbent on treating us as some kind of strange beings. If that’s the case, there’s no point in explaining. I’ll just ask you, why let God-Made Beasts slaughter lives on the earth? Why destroy the Sky City?”

“Why?”

As if hearing an especially silly question, a more pronounced sarcasm appeared at the corner of Xi Fu’s mouth.

“I am a god, the Mother of the Earth. At least over half of the lives in this world are connected to me! The seeds I scatter are mine to reap as I please; do farmers wait for crops to wither before they harvest them?”

“…”

Vilyric had heard similar answers once before in the illusion on the Demon Island. She had thought there might be some hidden reason, that Xi Fu, this Withering Goddess, had some special purpose for doing this, just like Rebecca did back then.

But in fact, she saw no signs of lies or pretense on Xi Fu’s face. This was truly the other party’s real thoughts, the true purpose.

To harvest life, using the Abyss Beasts—special connections between God-Made Beasts and deities—to compensate for the losses generated by her thousand-year seal, and perhaps it was also because of the “malice of the world” that she hadn’t acted before reaching godhood.

She truly regarded all lives in the world as mere nourishment to be harvested.

This was not simply a matter of good and evil; in the eyes of mortals, this Withering Goddess was heinous, but perhaps from her own perspective, this was merely a reasonable use, just as people store emergency food at home to eat when needed.

Perhaps Xi Fu even didn’t see it as “causing harm.”

However, even with the divine spark and the divine realm, as a member of the divine race recognized by the world, Vilyric still couldn’t agree with this approach; divinity has never been a reason for slaughter.

“How should I put it… it seems the world’s rejection of you is indeed quite a reasonable act. This world isn’t your sandbox, Xi Fu; you’re too arrogant. This arrogance makes you beholden to all foes—just as it did a thousand years ago, so it is now.”

“So, spare yourself the self-deception and the ridiculous act of blaming everything on the world—it only makes you appear weak.”

   

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